pleasanton a gas in the center of athens thousands of greeks clashed with police outside the parliament infuriated by a new austerity package about to be voted through also. for the united states of america the best is yet to come i have visibly moved promises to resurrect his four year old message of hope after winning his second term as president of the united states. and the world reacts to obama's victory from a cold response in israel and the arab world to cautious optimism and the halls of the kremlin. and a shooting spree in moscow as a broken heart supposedly pushes him to take up killing five of his colleagues.

international news and comment live from our new center here in moscow this is. well to our breaking news story this hour thousands of angry greeks have gathered in the center of things to protest against new austerity measures about to be voted on in parliament there are fresh clashes happening as we speak and peter all of is in the greek capital if you crossed him live now syntagma square where you are peter it's seen many protests over the past couple of years how hostile is the situation today. well it would seem that the weather has started to intervene we've seen riot police engaging in running battles with demonstrators we're now seeing what is a borderline hurricane taking place as an eye. absolute deluge of water comes down

over the demonstrators that have reform in front of the parliament building and that's the paula building of course where the latest round of austerity measures is being debated before a vote later on now this round of austerity measures is expected to cut and make savings about the pardon of around thirteen point five billion euros the thirteen point five billion demanded of greece by its three main lenders the so-called troika they said the don't make those cuts you don't get the next round of bailout money however the greek people are absolutely outraged by these cuts and savings that are being imposed upon them by what they see as foreign powers now they included raising of the retirement age from sixty five to sixty seven between a dive and fifteen percent cuts in pensions also wage cuts for public servants as well as they could to the minimum wage here in greece and heavy benefit cuts now what that resulted in was what started out as a fairly peaceful demonstration with thirty more than one hundred thousand people

here in the square in the city of. very nasty very quickly the air was thick with. there were flushed being used by nato. of bales. because of the rain. and what i'm sorry about this but. is there in greece and we are losing our communication with him trying to get back to him in the next hour but apologies as you can imagine the conditions are pretty difficult for city life because it's a square in central athens. barack obama to fulfill his promise of change in a victory speech to jubilant supporters that's after securing a second term as president of the united states.

while what was predicted be a close finish if not a tide turned into an electoral college landslide barack obama swept to victory almost every battleground state to win a second term as president his republican challenger mitt romney has since conceded defeat saying he hoped a bomber could deliver now. she's in new york for more on the election aftermath. well president barack obama achieved an electoral sweep there is a much narrow margin when it comes to the popular vote of the twenty twelve election believe it or not u.s. ballots are still being counted as of wednesday morning it appears that fifty percent of americans voted for obama and forty eight and a half percent voted for mitt romney what this shows is that despite obama's victory america remains a nation that is deeply divided and some would say very polarized obama for his

part defied history in the twenty twelve election the u.s. leader was reelected with the highest unemployment rate of any president returning to office since franklin roosevelt in one thousand nine hundred thirty six the u.s. unemployment rate is around seven point eight percent and tens of millions of americans are not experiencing the economic recovery that obama promised four years ago but in the u.s. twenty twelve election voters were forced to pick between a democratic incumbent who hasn't delivered on his promise of change and a republican such as mitt romney whose agenda included shrinking government and slashing taxes in times of financial uncertainty during his acceptance speech barack obama assured americans that the best was still ahead but as artie's guy in a chicken reports the best may be more of the same with and the winner was.

more interested in this is like a good. voice her human endeavors mitt romney has accepted his role. just as it will be. later victory. full on excitement in the president's hometown of chicago to president obama's daughters chanting four more years. survive but what do they expect in the next four years and are they so happy with the past four of his presidency congress hasn't been very cooperative the past two years but i think he needs these four more years to continue i'm very happy with what he's tried to achieve i really need to have the help of the health care that he's going to offer and like i said we need more time than the last four years the main pledge of president obama's campaign has been to bring back the shrinking middle class and made the economy slow recovery and gigantic deficit at a time when the gap between the rich and the poor is as high as ever in america i

want to give middle class families and folks who are striving to get in the middle class some relief because they have been hit hard the president has blamed congress for his inability to implement a more robust plan to help out the middle class president obama's claim that he's being handcuffed by republican lawmakers and his plan to dramatically cut taxes for middle income americans does not hold the vast majority of americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy and skeptics argue there is no reason to believe congress will give the president an easier ride in his second term however president obama had no problem with congress when he signed into law the controversial legislation which allows for the detention of american citizens for indefinite periods of time without charge and due process is a new trend on the trail of our civil liberties that the president has assumed dictatorial rights to put us in prison at his pleasure without

charge or without trial and congress did not stand in the president's way when he was increasing military spending here after a year of something he almost bragged about during the debate on foreign policy our military spending has gone up every single year that i've been in office. the actions of the administration overseas in the last four years have indicated. that the president discarded in favor of military interventions but is the clear strategy is to stay away from fighting ground wars and to opt for more hit and run style interventions like the one executed in libya. as well syria the administration indicated that they would like to intervene more actively but for now syria just seems too complicated and washington cannot count on a desirable outcome for us to get more entanglement militarily in syria is a serious step and we have to do so making absolutely certain that we know who we

are helping that we're not putting arms in the hands of folks who eventually could turn them against us or our allies in the region having spent around a billion dollars in this election campaign barack obama is america's commander in chief again president obama will be sworn into office in january something his supporters are very excited about their hopes and expectations include jobs no more devastating wars and no more financial meltdowns there was a good number of people who voted for barack obama because they were voting against mitt romney seeing him as more aggressive especially when it comes to foreign policy and seemingly out of touch with middle class america and a lot of people they don't see a choice at all in this election in washington i'm going to shake out. in the middle east obama's victory isn't evoke emotion jubilation israel openly back to mitt romney who went out of his way to support tel aviv and while the arab world is not exactly enthusiastic views of bombers fuel the moderate and the lesser of two

evils auntie's middle east correspondent paula slip reports. what we have seen from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is that he has not shied away from making it publicly known that he would have preferred a republican inside the white house what we now witnessing and what we have seen in the past is sometimes a very public and clashes public spat between the obama administration and israeli leaders and these were often over the iranian nuclear program as well as the palestinians peace talks now there are commentaries at the moment circulating here in israel that say that netanyahu now has a very serious problem on his hands and there is no way that he can cover it at a recent poll put the support amongst israelis towards romney at fifty seven percent twenty one percent supporting obama and the watches of netanyahu and obama the relationship between the united states and israel has deteriorated to an idle time low and the big question of course is the whole question of what netanyahu now

will do these are the rare and he has been quite vocal saying that he's threatening to strike iran but it is quite clear that he cannot carry out such a strike without american support and obama for his side has not given him the support most of the arab world has preferred and obama victory back in two thousand and nine in his now famous cairo speech a bomb a pledge that he was going to introduce a new chapter in american muslim relations but since then there has been a lot of disappointment over the way he has dealt with issues in the arab world particularly these are the muslims he was a lot of criticisms leveled against him in his administration over the way they handled the arab spring they were accused of doing double standards and inconsistency and also accused of meddling in countries such as egypt and libya and then when it comes to the so-called unnoticed revolutions of bahrain for example with pro-democracy demonstrators have been taking to the streets a bomb has kept quiet. while the take a look at where america may go under obama over the next four years and for that

i'm joined by scott bolden he's managing partner at reed smith more joining me there in washington you were once chair of the democratic party in washington from your perspective just how close was this race. well it was very close thank you for having me glad to be here in washington is doing just fine with the election behind us now even though it's only been a day i can tell you that it was very close at the leaf lord it still hasn't come in yet but the the two candidates were only about two million votes apart which isn't very much now clearly obama had over three hundred electoral votes and romney had about two hundred that's even without florida but the die was cast at about midnight one o'clock eastern standard time and the president was reelected some say that obama's victory was more of a protest vote against romney what would you say to that.

well i do think that the republican party and romney had some extreme positions but historically governor romney from the state of massachusetts was a moderate governor and his party pushed him to more conservative views and i do think that that appeal to the tea party. members of the republican party would appeal to more conservative white male and female voters evangelicals and quite frankly what put obama over the top and by many accounts is that women people of color. latinos and african-americans really came out in huge numbers and that's where the republicans and romney lost a lot of ground because those groups simply have not found the republican party very appealing and so it was a clear victory for the democratic party the real issue though is what happens now you still got a democratic president you still have

a senate that is democratic and a house of representatives now that is conservative republicans will have to see what is that wise going to be difficult for obama to keep any promises because after all he's broken if he promises any way at all so it's bringing the two main parties together. what does the future hold for that. well it'll be interesting i think that the president of the republic the representatives in the house of representatives and the senate their leadership qualities are going to be tested clearly the exit polling said that the voters wanted something to get done in washington and we've been pretty much a stalemate for the last four years i wouldn't say that president barack obama hasn't kept his promises he's been unable to keep his promises he's done his level best i'm not sure given the political makeup of the legislature and the executive any one could have done better but the people want something different and we've

got this fiscal cliff that we're looking at and regard to tax breaks and and and. other financial issues coming up by the end of the year and it is going to take all parties and the legislature and the executive to work together so we'll see still bowled in d.c. a magazine thought i should say read smith in washington d.c. thank you very much indeed for joining us. you can tell an ordinary russian siberian in the blink of an. anthropologist in those days siberians wore different clothes different food. different animals. but what about. my journey began in two men but the big city was

all shiny skyscrapers and shopping malls much like any other prosperous russian. so i decided to travel to. a small town just outside. dumplings came from here to dominate the russian cuisine but only in siberia. with cabbage and making sure you can have as a start the main dish. although it may draw. most people in siberia see nothing wrong with hunting only if you decide to participate.

when you look upon martin. as in the middle of a swamp only accessible by. its inhabited by siberian a large muslim minority that migrated head before the russians. and this. israel. maybe not the. tourism brochures but distinctive enough to show the oldies yes' cyber is still not quite like anywhere else.

in the. wealthy british style. that's not on the. market why not come the. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on our tea.

party life here in moscow the german chancellor is in london for what could be a frosty meeting with britain's prime minister about the ease budget for twenty thirteen. to try and talk david cameron out a veto in the budget something that the u.k. parliament is urging him to do totally rozerem from the taxpayers' alliance spokesman allele here a lot he says that britain's special position gives it more weight in the block when money's concerned. i think i think across the european union in particular verse or there is a longstanding appreciation that the u.k. has a particular view on european integration which is not shared by other countries we are also a country which paid far more in to the budget that we get out which is in a strong position but also. in the process those are serious questions as to the the deal which we are currently getting within the terms on the common fisheries policy and in terms of the red tape and regulation and so forth so the whole series of reasons why the u.k.

and politicians in particular conservative party parties are not happy with the a we've got. a government went on the rampage in moscow shooting dead five people in severely wounding two bodies in the front springs is now the latest details. he's storms the office on the fourth floor with a rifle in each hand and began firing bullets when two women and three men died two other people are right now being treated in the hospital now according to investigators the suspect says he'd been drinking for five days in a row and then came into the office to carry out the shooting because he was in love with one of his female coworkers who did not return his feelings now before the shooting on his big contact your page which is essentially a russian a social networking of mobile into facebook he posted a very violently worded manifesto that was posted at around five this morning the shooting took place just five hours later he used phrases such as i hate human

society i hate this very life he talks about human evolution comparing it to cancer eating away at the body now the worry in all of this at this point is that this a first strongly out copycat crime crimes that the mirror of mass killings have that have taken place in other countries very definitely of the united states and also the anders breivik case out of norway so really in a country like russia where firearms are so heavily restricted and crime such as this search truly rare investigators do hope that this is not in fact a copycat case and that it does not lead to more like it. to a key and its allies including the u.s. are reportedly considering stationing patriot missiles along the border with syria reports suggest that nato is preparing to take responsibility for the deployment of the missiles with more on this i'm joined by joshua landis is associate professor director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma well

patriot missiles are many defensive weapons on a so is their deployment really a big deal a big concern. well i'm not sure that they are obviously turkey is feeling very abandoned by nato by the west and is taking care of all these refugees that is beginning to trying to help organize the syrian opposition and i think this is a way to show that the west hasn't abandoned. but it isn't likely to be a precursor to any sort of military action against syria without any sanction from the united nations. no i don't think so i think i think the united states is going to approach from the obama administration is going to approach the syria problem with great. great trepidation great care getting sucked into syria militarily. a bomber has spent most of his first term trying not to do that and there's no reason to think he will get sucked in because

his his major platform was we're getting out we're ending the wars of a decade in afghanistan we've ended iraq and i don't think he wants to get sucked into syria but certainly getting sucked in in terms of negotiations in diplomacy i mean the u.s. is trying to at the moment consolidate the syrian opposition isn't it trying to bring them to some sort of negotiations with the syrian government that's what the latest effort saw. yes they are indeed and this is the attempt to get together to increase the syrian national council which america at all but abandoned and to grow in size and to try to develop a much more acceptable syrian government in exile if you will or in waiting and the trouble is it's unlikely to have a very successful outcome the united states has been struggling for the us with this for a long time but they're doing it in

a sense because they don't want to get involved in sending arms to the militias all right and i think the united states looked at the militias for a period of time and it is sort of dropped we've got a bit of a delay not a successful outcome with these efforts what next then is it really hands off approach to syria what next for the country just briefly. well i think the united states and europe are are floundering they're an earth they're thrashing about a policy and so far the syrian opposition have been so fragmented that they don't know how to support it or who to support this is why the effort to try to get together a unified syrian opposition and hillary clinton secretary of state clinton has said she's not going to serve for a second term and this effort was really i think in some ways a swansong so that she would not leave her successor with that completely with a policy in complete disarray but what the syrians feel let down the syrian

national congress yes and see if for example that was supported by washington one station as he turned his back on it. well i i think both sides feel let down i think washington feels let down because they believe that the syrians have not unified and presented the kind of. political effort that the west can convince its people is not going to turn into. a swamp and that's this is the trouble why you know the syrians of course feel abandoned and they are abandoned the world is not helping them almost no aid is getting in even for the refugees very little aid is very little is being done the united states has not committed very much money to this process and part of the united states turns right back to the syrians and says you have to get together and organize we can't we can't begin funding militias that may be penetrated by al qaida or turn out to be celibate. let me just thank you very much indeed for

joining us joshua landis associate professor and director of center for middle east studies in the university of oklahoma great to have you on r.t. thank you. and it's the biggest electoral intrigue of this year draws to a close we'll be bringing you the final few results expert analysis and continued international reaction here on r.t. . that's where it is the moment more news in the about thirty five minutes from now in the meantime cross-talk is next point. if you are passing through russia's very region you really can work on the wild side. thousands of kilometers of unspoiled countryside make up an area where it's still possible to live off the land and enterprising locals so the fruits of the forest by the side of nearly every road. such spectacular scenery makes it

a paradise for fisherman and provides a business opportunity for hunters. going on he has been hunting for more than thirty years and works for a company providing expeditions for tourists this season ducks are on the menu of. things a successful. at a site that would be very quiet i'm not going to write him. off. but when you've been in the business as long as he has the birds don't stand much chance. there are defined hunting seasons in russia but lax enforcement means many animals are killed out of the allotted times which can leave young animals orphaned and unable to survive but environmentalists are fighting back the heart of just us forest provides a sanctuary for the most famous beast in russia it's home to a group who rescue often bear cubs and raise them when they're old enough to fend

for themselves the cubs a target taken to a remote location and released back into the wild but it's not just bears who find a haven here this is wolf island here wolf pups have been captured by hunters or bought from zoos have a second chance at life and conservationists have a unique opportunity to observe them these walls are all around four months old and they'll stay in this area for up to three years then most will go back to the wild for good just viewing them from the car was an experience in itself but then after a bit of a bumpy ride came an opportunity i just couldn't pass up. this is what i was hoping for when i heard i was coming to a place called wolf island a chance to get up close and personal with the locals and it's these guys going to act as pasta parents for the next generation of wolves who come here using the

older wolves as surrogate parents has already proved a successful technique. every i place infant wolves with one year old wolf cubs his parental instinct is totally shaped and they take them as their own cubs it's an important part of the world's development and a major factor in the success of a project which has seen more than twenty generations of cubs grow up here it's going to continue to take time and money to rehabilitate the wolfs reputation in russia. but the keepers here hope their research and dedication mean that wolf island remains a place where visitors can truly understand the call of the wild.